Tips and techniques for using email to drive sales

Digital Training Academy eBooklet - March 2009

Since email emerged as the most cost effective way to maintain rich consumer relationships, marketers have been building databases, segmenting their customers and targeting relevant messages. Now with social media, RSS and mobile providing additional channels, brands need integrated digital strategies that blend these communications together in a way the customer wants. This practical ebooklet accompanies the Digital Training Academy programmes in relationship marketing, email design and customer retention.

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Understanding what works in digital

Digital Insight Report - March 2009

Part of becoming a stronger digital team lies in building up the intuition of team members. We’re all regular users of the internet, and we know what we like about the medium and the sites we visit, and what we find irritating. By reflecting on these areas that ‘rock’ – where digital channels can go far above and beyond the scope of other media – and the negative areas that ‘flop’, executives can build out a stronger understanding of how online media and marketing can work best. This short report lists some of those ‘rocks and flops’ from different aspects of digital channels

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Improving the accountability of digital channels

Digital Insight Report - March 2009

Online marketing should be the most accountable of all media channels, yet consistently it fails to deliver. Web analytics offer precise understand about who visits your websites, where they go and what they do. Online advertising server technology has tracked impressions and clicks for over a decade but now offers insights into the reach of campaigns, while brand effectiveness research can precisely quantify the uplift brands enjoy from web campaigns. Email software tracks open rates and response rates, and when integrated together these techniques show you how to improve the effectiveness of your digital marketing at every consumer touchpoint.

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And the detail is in the data

Digital Insight Report - February 2009

“The Internet is brilliant – you can measure everything”. How many times did you hear this phrase in the early days of digital marketing? A few years on, does the promise measure up to reality, or does this sound more familiar: “we’re drowning in numbers, but lacking in meaningful analysis” and “we’ve got half a dozen different versions of the truth?” The Internet offers fantastic new possibilities to marketers and a new set of tools to learn how to use. To make the most of the opportunities, marketers have to really understand the detail of what’s going on. Why? Because the combination of lots of small incremental improvements can make a big difference.

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Understanding web publishing profitability

Digital Insight Report - January 2009

Web publishing continues to evolve. The advertising model is changing and the content models have broadened from simple text to full video, and from single publisher generated content to engaging social media anyone can take part in. Changing advertising rates, rising content costs, the battle for traffic acquisition: these are part of the daily challenges for online publishers. In this Digital Insight Report we explore the costs of online publishing, the role of video content and social media, and the challenges on maintaining a strong business model.

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Best practice in video advertising for the web

Digital Insight Report - May 2008

Video advertising is changing the way online marketing works. We’ve crossed a threshold in the development of internet marketing and getting video commercials to work well on the web is becoming a core element in integrated marketing. Online video advertising delivers powerful emotional messages that build brands and unlock the power of television. But how do you select the right technologies, harness the formats effectively and develop the right balance and model for where multimedia and video advertising fit around video and IPTV content? In this report we explore some of the key challenges and offer practical hints and tips for getting video right.

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Product development strategies

Digital Insight Report - May 2008

These notes share with you our approach in product development, and the way that thinking about customer needs can help websites think more broadly about their content, community and toolkits. They reflect key elements media brands would want to consider in developing a consumer facing online service, and also underscore the challenges in getting the formula for product development right. In the web environment, consumers can have many needs met without relying upon classic media brands, so as publishers and broadcasters complete their migration to multi-channel providers, they need to broaden their proposition and reposition their role.

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Helping web media sites acquire and retain viewers

Digital Insight Report - April 2008

Building a successful online media property means building a sustainable and resilient audience. The dynamics of audience acquisition and engagement on the web are different from those in classic media channels and although they hinge on the delivery of great content that satisfies audience needs, marketers have to work hard to acquire the right audiences at the right price. Add to that the competitive landscape where every other site is only a click away and there are many challenges in getting the model right. In this report we collate smart tactics for getting audiences into and back to the content.

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We're looking for the best in digital marketing

Digital Insight Report - March 2008

To support the Digital Training Academy we look for examples of best practice digital marketing from a wide variety of industry sectors. Any agency, advertiser or media owner can submit a case study for our consideration, and in this report you'll find some of the case studies we're currently using to support training in Europe, Asia and North America. Remember that as a training provider we're not directly endorsing the brands or the teams, but we have been impressed with their work and hope you enjoy them. If you'd like to submit examples of your work then email them into Team@DigitalStrategyConsulting.com and after an initial review we'll be in touch if we feel they can be used to support learning goals.

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Understanding the challenges facing brands

Digital Insight Report - March 2008

The skills crisis in digital publishing is holding back the industry. It forms a barrier to competitiveness and because the capability weakness is common at all levels in organizations, it presents a strategic risk for everything the firm develops in digital channels. This report summarizes common challenges and issues publishing executives describe in the conversion from print or broadcast to web media. From leadership boards to operational sales teams, digital publishing and marketing coaching is critical in unlocking the potential.

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Landmarks in digital development

Digital Insight Report - March 2008

Internet communications have become a routine part of the daily lives of most people in the technically advanced countries of Asia, Western Europe and North America. As part of this, online marketing has already become a mainstream part of the media mix. These facts and landmarks we collated for participants on the Digital Training Academies are a summary of the internet and marketing development Academy lectures and are intended to present a few highlights of the immense changes created through this industry.

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Hints and tips for planners new to digital marketing

Digital Insight Report - February 2008

Online marketing presents a richer choice of media formats, targeting and messaging than any other media channel. Harnessing this potential involves building on the principles of traditional media planning and using new toolkits, and matching the right formats and sites with the right media properties - all in a market that offers a daunting array of options. There are new metrics to track that transform accountability, and new models for trading media space. This Digital Insight Report introduces some of the trends, frameworks and viewpoints that describe online media planning today to help planners new to digital channels get up to speed quickly.

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A dozen digital drivers

Digital Insight Report - January 2008

The rules of the media game have changed. Audiences have migrated and fragmented, and their expectations for entertainment have begun shifting in whole new ways. This is the arrival of television all over again, but suddenly every teenager has their own studio, and through YouTube, their own broadcast network. This Google generation expect every packet of media content to be available in the palms of their hands, and they’ll readily share pirated links with Facebook friends before the show has even launched. With audiences on the move, advertising budgets are finally starting to follow: that’s why – only now – are media groups hurting. Ironically it’s still the early days for digital marketing, yet most newspapers, television and magazine groups remain poorly prepared. The core challenge is their product: shoehorning classic media content into digital channels just doesn’t cut it. But when content, context, consumers and channels all need to change, how do you navigate that landscape? We’ve collated a dozen of our favourite drivers of digital content to help leadership teams consider their strategies.

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Weaving blogs effectively into digital marketing

Digital Insight Report - January 2007

Blogging moved from the margins to the mainstream of digital publishing around 2003, changing the way firms could relate to their customers, and offering the potential to transform the role of corporate communications. By developing their own blogs, or carefully raising discussion and comment on those run by others, brands can extend their footprint and reach wider audiences. It can be an exceptionally powerful, cost-effective and intimate way of developing a message, but comes with real risks and limitations. The digital networked society has given a voice to anyone, and this democratisation of access to discussion creates a new landscape for messaging. It’s a powerful reminder of the new era of communications we all work in, and getting it right demands strategic thinking and a sustainable plan, as well as authenticity and tenacity. This Digital Insight Report explores how and why this is the case, and gets you thinking about how you might be able to harness blogging for your brands.

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Building stronger digital advertising sales teams

Digital Insight Report - December 2007

We set up the Digital Media Sales Academy courses in 2004 and since then they’ve been taught to teams in 20 countries. Trainers have been supporting media sales managers and their teams through online tuition. Here we’ve taken a selection of comments from the conversations in the Digital Classroom to provide teams with additional insights. Any Academy participant can post questions and tutors guarantee to reply. These clips from the classroom highlight just a few of the issues raised, and how working more smartly can help boost the productivity of your team.

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Spreading the word

Digital Insight Report - November 2007

Viral marketing is the concept that describes how marketers aim to construct campaigns that gain their exposure by encouraging one person to pass the message on to the next, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message's visibility. It can be an exceptionally cost-effective way of generating interest and brand awareness, but comes with real limitations and eludes most brands that set out to harness it. The digital networked society has unlocked the power of viral marketing, and with individuals likely to trust each other increasingly more for recommendations, viral and buzz marketing techniques have become a key element in the digital advertiser’s toolbox. However, while every brand now aspires to overnight success with a viral campaign, few succeed, and this Digital Insight Report explores how and why this is the case, looks for the models of success and gets you thinking about how you might be able to harness viral for your brands.

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Why harnessing Web 2.0 techniques demands changing your classic marketing

Digital Insight Report - October 2007

It’s time for a change in marketing. We’ve seen periods of change before, but never on the scale now needed. The legacy of the first digital decade includes placing the absolute control of media in the hands of the audience, the removal of frictions in the access to knowledge, the capturing of conversations, a step-change in the scale of media fragmentation, and the arrival of whole new paradigms in communication. The pace remains daunting, and yet any brand failing to adapt, is assured to fail. Many classic marketing channels continue, but a new type of blended, connected marketing is called for. The arrival of social media, online social networks and the Web 2.0 era demands marketers rethink their approach even more.

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Harnessing online social networks effectively

Digital Insight Report - November 2007

The digital networked society creates new models for social interaction. Online communities may have been prospering long before the web, but only in the last few years have they crossed into the mainstream. Social software has unlocked the enthusiasm to self-publish, but while every brand now aspires to owning a community, few will ever succeed.

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Challenges and opportunities for brands

Digital Insight Report - September 2007

Online marketing has changed again. The technologies of the ‘Web 2.0’ generation of applications and services have big implications for internet advertising and how internet marketers work. They have triggered a massive wave of participative communities, online social networks, user generated content and social media that have changed the communications landscape.Marketers need to adjust their models and campaigns to use these new tools and to harness the power of online marketing effectively. But to succeed in internet marketing there are challenges in thinking, structure and marketing processes that have to be overcome. What are the challenges? What are the key elements of Web 2.0 that matter most?

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European online marketing trends

Digital Insight Report - July 2007

As online marketing and advertising continues to change, these insight calls are intended to keep you abreast of key issues. We cover an agenda that blends your critical issues with key trends we’re observing. In 2007 key topics are proving to be the development of social media, changes in advertising formats, the new mix of media properties that’s emerging, and the relationship between marketing through classic channels and marketing online.
To succeed in internet media and marketing there are challenges in the thinking, structure and marketing processes businesses have, and the Web 2.0 era only accelerates these.

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Landmarks in digital development

Digital Insight Report - June 2007

Internet communications have become a routine part of the daily lives of most people in the technically advanced countries of Asia, Western Europe and North America. As part of this, online marketing has already become a mainstream part of the media mix. These facts and landmarks we collated for participants on the Digital Training Academies are a summary of the internet and marketing development Academy lectures and are intended to present a few highlights of the immense changes created through this industry.

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Getting a handle on online communities

Digital Insight Report - April 2007

Online or virtual communities have fast become the must-have component for every website. Media groups are shifting their strategies, and placing people at the heart of communication rather than at the end of it. Many corporate online strategies are centred around online community: from the eBay trading community, to dating in Match.com, to the child-safe world of Habbo Hotel. The boom in online communities is unstoppable as the internet becomes more deepseated in our day-to-day lives. What is an online community? Which communities are working? Who is benefiting from them today? How do they support your marketing strategy?

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Web marketing for smaller firms

Digital Insight Report - February 2007

As hundreds of thousands of small British firms start to harness the power of the web to get customers, maintain relationships and sell direct, this simple guide provides a checklist of practical steps many have found useful. Every firm can benefit from online marketing, and as the techniques have matured, they've become simple to use.

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Trends in online advertising targeting

Digital Insight Report - September 2006

The ability to target internet advertising has leapt in waves. Fuelled by powerful advertising management systems, a range of techniques and strategies are now both stable and widely available, offering ever richer ways to segment audiences, differentiating between even very similar customer profiles. Our simple overview explains today's techniques and what's in store for agencies, clients and publishers.

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Our market update: search engine advertising

Digital Insight Report - August 2006

The revolution in direct marketing continues as more firms realise the power of search. Search engines account for half the online advertising industry in some countries and they're changing the nature of customer acquisition marketing forever. Now Central and Eastern Europe are heading towards their tipping points in the growth of search, and with the engines continuing to deliver waves of new products and tools, its clear the growth will not slow down.

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Key questions facing website publishers

Digital Insight Report - May 2006

Web publishers need to embrace search engines and devise the right strategy to reach the audiences they attract, while maintaining ownership of the issue around search partnerships and outline the key questions every publisher must face. Failing to act is acting to fail.

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Trends marketers can harness

Digital Insight Report - January 2006

The world has changed radically, and we're still only part of the way on the journey to a society which is both digital and networked. Want to reap the spoils of the second digital decade? Look into the past and gain perspective on present trends driving the digital economy. The truths of how the networked markets behave are starting to become clear. Understand them and accelerate your marketing and your firm.

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Ten simple steps for getting on the right track

Digital Insight Report - January 2006

As hundreds of thousands of small British firms start to harness the power of the web to get customers, maintain relationships and sell direct, this simple guide provides a check-list of practical steps many have found useful. Every firm can benefit from online marketing, and as the techniques have matured, they've become simple to use.

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Challenges and solutions to cookie churn

Digital Insight Report - November 2005

On the tiny cookie text file rests the weight of much of today's web analytics industry. Yet as cookie deletion rates rise the problem of churn has become material. The humble cookie is starting to crumble, and with that the accuracy of much of the data webmasters, publishers, brands and marketers are routinely using. We examine the problem and suggest steps you can take.

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